TRADE COMMISSION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8365, 27 February 1913, Page 8

TRADE COMMISSION

SHIPPING FREIGHTS HOW GERMAN GOODS GET AN ADVANTAGE. Press Association. DUNEDIN, February 26. The Dominion Royal Commission continued its sittings to-day. Mr J. Blair Mason, engineer of the Otago Harbour Board, showed the Commission the condition of the harbour as to depth of water and so on. Ho stated in a general way the improvements made, and told the members that “we can take into the harbour all vessels at present trading to the Dominion. At the beads there is a depth of 37ft at low water, and vessels drawing 40ft can enter; but at present such vessels cannot proceed up the channel. The difficulties inside, however, are such as can be dealt with.” Mr Mason said he could ■ not state exactly what it would cost to deepen the channel to Port Chalmers to 40ft, but he estimated it at £50,000. The board had borrowed about £87,000 for works, and paid on an average about 5 per cent. The shOardfs endowments included about 660 acres in the city of Dunedin, of which about 290 acres had been reclaimed and absorbed in the city, and these, would become very valuable in years to come. The board’s income would be more than sufficient to pay all interest charges and' provide a sinking fund with which to pay off loans. In his opinion the providing of a 40ft channel all the way to Dunedin was prohibitive on the ground of expense. The present proposal was to deepen the uper harbour and to deepen Victoria channel. It would cost no more to maintain those at greater depths. The present revenue met without difficultyall charges for interest and upkeep. SUBSIDIES AND PREFERENCE. Mr J. W. Henton, of the New Zealand Drug Company, presented a remit of the Chamber of Commerce on the question of shipping subsidies, and read a memorandum to the following effect: “The question of finance is the all-important factor in dealing witn this question, and it appears to us that each case of subsidy should be considered on its merits and dealt with by such an organisation as an Empire De velopment Department, and the cost of any subsidy allocated between the points of the Empire benefiting. It has been brought under the notice of the chamber that freight on goods from Hamburg to New Zealand via London is considerably less than that from Dondon to New Zealand direct—a state of things appearing to us to be inconsistent and requiring investigation. A specific case has been furnished covering an article of import where the freight from Hamburg is 29s 6d per ton and from London 40s per ton. The reason of the difference is not obvious, unless German shippers rely on State assistance to reimburse them. There is also another aspect. On the particular goods referred to there exists a preferential duty of 10 per cent, and the difference in favour of Hamburg shipment represents 17J per cent, of duty. It therefore follows that the preferential duty is negatived to this extent and might by further reductions in freight charges be rendered in a measure ineffective for the protection of British against foreign manufacturers-” Answering questions, Mr Henton said he did not know how such a state of affairs as variation in freights could be remedied, but he contended that it was the duty of the Government to see that the matter was attended to when considering a preferential tariff. The net result of the present system was that our people paid the German subsidies. The Hon. J. R. Sinclair asked if it was not a fact that London was treated as a port of origin for goods that really came from the Continent, and in this way treated as British goods though not really so. They got the benefit of the preferential tariff. A CASE IN POINT. Mr Henton replied that he did not know that the practice obtained to any igreat extent. The Opawa brought his firm glass bottles—some from England and some from Hamburg. The freight on the English bottles was 30s and on the German bottles 23s 6d, though both lots came by the same vessel. The shipper made a declaration that the goods were of British manufacture, and this declaration was accepted by the Customs. Goods that were duty-free were duty-free to all alike. The goods must have 25 per cent, of British labour in finishing in order to get the preference; the other 75 per cent, of labour might be German. If 75 per cent._,of the labour were British and 25 per cent, of the finishing labour German he did not think such goods would get a preferential advantage, but so far as he knew it was not common for goods to be prepared in England and sent to Germany to finish. A SUGGESTED REASON. Mr James Park, of Park and C 0.,, said German goods were as cheap as British, even taking the tariff into consideration. He thought on the whole our. own people were retaining the balance of trade, but there was always a demand in some lines for cheapness. His idea was that British ships kept freights low for German, goods so that it would not be worth while for the Nord Deutscher line to send vessels direct to New Zealand. To avoid German opposition in shipping, facilities to ship German manufactures in British bottoms were given to German manufactures, thus avoiding German competition in New Zealand waters. ALL-RED CABLE. Mr Mark Cohen, editor of the "Evening Star,” gave evidence strongly in support of an All-Red cable, allowing code messages in all sections of cable telegraphy and an all-round reduction of rates. Replying to Sir Rider Haggard, Mi Cohen said that British people had no cable across the Atlantic., and nothing bad been done in response to the representations of the Imperial Press Conference on the subject. It was a step in the right direction that the British Government had decided to retain -.he right to control rates in respect to utnro landing agreements. Atlantic cable owners got 5d a word for 3000 miles and other 10,000 miles cost only 4d. The Commission will sit again to-mor-row.